We are constantly touched by sound in the world around us. But it touches us, we don’t touch it. In this interactive installation for boxes, fabric, sounds & sensors, participants are invited to discover what a sound might feel like if we could hold it in our hands. Like the selected physical materials, the sounds used are highly textural. The two are connected together, so that a sonic “fuzzy” sound is matched with a physical “fuzzy material”. Each box is embedded with a variety of sensors (force, stroke, stretch, etc. ). The participant then gently pushes, pulls, squeezes, and stretches the material, which manipulates the sounds coming through the headphones. Sensitivities are rewarded with subtle interactive moments.

Sight is intentionally masked, so that touch is intimately connected with listening. Participants are encouraged to listen with fresh ears to the electronic sounds, and encouraged to connect with notions of space and form that are embedded in each of these distinctive virtual objects.

Sense Boxes was premiered at Quiet Cue in Berlin, Germany (2013) and has also been featured at the Noise Conference in Huddersfield, UK, at NYCEMF in NYC (2015), at ICAD in Graz, Austria (2015), at Liebig 12 Gallery in Berlin (2017), and at the Mixtur Festival in Barcelona (2017).